“[Even the mechanism can be endowed with an image. Thus] the thermostat has an image of the outside world in the shape of information regarding its temperature. It has also a value system in the sense of the ideal temperature at which it is set. Its behavior is directed towards the receipt of information which will bring its image and its value systems together.” WorldTogetherValuesInformationShapesBehaviorIdealsMechanismTemperatureOutside WorldValue SystemsReceipts Author:Kenneth E. Boulding
“If a totally new image is to come into being however, there must be sensitivity to internal messages, the image itself must be sensitive to change, must be unstable, and it must include a value image which places high value on trials, experiments, and the trying of new things.” IfsTryingValuesMessagesTrialsExperimentsSensitiveInternalsNew ThingsSensitivityUnstable Author:Kenneth E. Boulding
“No science of any kind can be divorced from ethical considerations... Science is a human learning process which arises in certain subcultures in human society and not in others, and a subculture as we seen is a group of people defined by acceptance of certain common values, that is, an ethic which permits extensive communication between them.” PeopleHumansKindCertainValuesProcessCommonGroupsAcceptanceCommunicationEthicsAriseDefinedConsiderationEthicalPermitDivorcedLearning ProcessHuman SocietySubculture Author:Kenneth E. Boulding
“Every culture, or subculture, is defined by a set of common values, that is, generally agreed upon preferences. Without a core of common values a culture cannot exist, and we classify society into cultures and subcultures precisely because it is possible to identify groups who have common values.” ValuesCultureCommonGroupsCoreDefinedPreferenceSubculture Author:Kenneth E. Boulding
“Even personal tastes are learned, in the matrix of a culture or a subculture in which we grow up, by very much the same kind of process by which we learn our common values. Purely personal tastes, indeed, can only survive in a culture which tolerates them, that is, which has a common value that private tastes of certain kinds should be allowed.” ShouldKindCertainValuesCultureGrowsProcessCommonGrowing UpTasteTolerateSubculturePersonal Taste Author:Kenneth E. Boulding
“The illusion that consumption - and its correlative, income - is desirable probably stems from too great preoccupation with what Knight calls "one-use goods," such as food and fuel, where the utilization and consumption of the good are tightly bound together in a single act or event. ... any economy in the consumption of fuel that enables us to maintain warmth or to generate power with lessened consumption again leaves us better off. ... there is no great value in consumption itself.” UseTogetherValuesEconomyEventsIllusionBoundsIncomeFuelGoodsWarmthConsumptionConsumerismStemDesirableBetter OffKnightsPreoccupationOverconsumptionGreat ValueUtilization Author:Kenneth E. Boulding
“The love of God again makes us free, for it draws us to set a low value on those things wherein we are subject to others - our wealth, our position, our reputation, and our life - and to set a high value on those things which no man can take from us - our integrity, our righteousness, our love for all men, and our communion with God.” MenValuesWealthOur LivesSubjectsPositionIntegrityLowsDrawsReputationGod LoveRighteousnessCommunionOur LoveCommunion With GodQuaker Author:Kenneth E. Boulding
